Sample of literary figures
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Nikki Liska
Female
Female police officer in Minneapolis, divorced with two teenaged sons, and together with colleague Sam Kovac the main character in a suite of crime novels by Tami Hoag. Nikki Liska has a sharp tongue, is tough and has quite a sense of humour. She gets on well with the older Kovac, and they miss each other – so they continue to cooperate – when she is moved to a cold-case group to be able to have more time with her sons.
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Mma Makutsi
Female
She struggles with her poor skin and unflattering spectacles, but Mma Grace Makutsi has impressively high grades from her secretarial course and is a lady with skin on her nose and a sharp tongue. In Alexander McCall Smith’s suite of novels about The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Botswana’s capital Gaborone, Mma Makutsi is first employed, but after a while becomes a part-owner of the agency. She is also happily married to Phuti Radiphuti.
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Thomas Carnacki
Male
English private detective who has certain similarities with Sherlock Holmes. Thomas Carnacki (his first name is rarely mentioned) doesn’t, however, only chase ordinary criminals, but also ghosts and other supernatural beings. He tells some friends about his cases while he keenly smokes his pipe. William Hope Hodgson only wrote nine short stories about Carnacki, but that sufficed to make the character classic.
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Harry Bosch
Male
He is actually called Hieronymus Bosch, but calls himself – for understandable reasons – Harry. His mother was a prostitute and was murdered; his father is a well-known lawyer whom he first met as an adult. Harry Bosch was a soldier and then became a police officer, mainly in Los Angeles. And he was also the main character in a whole row of detective stories by Michael Connelly.